Used my JRCO leaf plow today for the first time. Eventually I'll get some pics of it in action, but for now, just a quick review.

So far, I'm very pleased with it! It did just what I wanted it to, took the place of tarping and dragging piles of leaves.

I use a 10hp Little Wonder blower, and as powerful as that is, there is a point where the piles get so big that it becomes less effective to keep trying to blow them.

So, in the past we've shut off the blowers and laid out the tarps and hand raked the worst part of the piles onto the tarps and dragged them out to the truck. We would do this until the pile was down enough that we could fire up the blowers again. This sucked!
It is slow, and it wears us out!

Today, not only was the pile getting big, but I was trying to direct the leaves in a certain direction without them going all over the place (on a covered above ground pool, and over/through a chain link fence). So I needed more control then a monster blower can give.

Fired up my 36" Exmark Metro and got behind the pile, dropped the plow down (it folds up over the deck for transport mode), and hit the pile. Drove them from the backyard all the way out to the curb. Yeah you lose some along the way, but it still moved a lot of them!
Came back and did that a couple more times.
The whole time, my helper is able to just keep blowing along.

By the time we're done, the pile at the curb is like 20' long and about 7' wide.
The plow then helps to "feed" the pile to me as I suck it up with the leaf loader. I just the lay the hose on the ground and rake into it. Rather then moving the truck along the pile, or raking the pile to the hose, I can just leave in one spot and use the plow to push the pile to the hose.

Not only did we get done faster, but we are much less fatigued.

The only down side is the mower I attached it to. I put it on the smaller mower so that I could use the plow in gated backyards (will have to take plow off to get through gate as it's 55" wide, but it's only two pins to take it off).
The Exmark has a 12.5hp and smaller tires, plus it's only a belt drive. If gates weren't an issue, I would probably like it much better on my 52" Snapper hydro WB.

We'll see how well it holds up. But all in all very happy.
I'll try to remember to get pics. I even had the camera with me today, just forgot to use it.

Lawn-Scapes

11-17-2004, 10:55 PM

Jonathan,

I'm glad you got the mount figured out and are happy with it. I'd like to see some pictures of it in action even though I'd probably never use one. Did you ever get a dump bed? I'd also like to see a picture of the loader and box set up. So... don't forget.. tomorrow!

gogetter

11-17-2004, 11:19 PM

Jonathan,
Did you ever get a dump bed?

I'm embarrassed to say, no! I've been talking about one for what, like over 2 years?! Seems something always comes up and there goes my money.
And now is the time of year where I really wish I had one too. Next year I guess.

I'll get pics of my leaf box and loader set up along with the leaf plow pics.

macaw

11-18-2004, 07:27 AM

Just got the JRCO leaf plow put it on Last night. Yes the manual is not that easy to figure out but I got it done. will be using it today will let you know how it works for me.